Team Never Quit Rishi Sharma: 25 Year Old on a Mission to Meet and Interview all WWII Veterans of the Allied Countries
Jan 4, 2023
01:06:04
Does anyone honor our World War II heroes anymore? In this week’s Team Never Quit Podcast, Marcus has a very fascinating guest – Rishi Sharma – who has been on a mission to interview at least one WWII combat veteran every single day until the last one passes away, since the age of 19. To date, he has interviewed over 1,700 WWII combat veterans, bringing their personal and military lives to the forefront, so future generations can learn to appreciate the lives they had and the sacrifices they made, allowing us to know them and be grateful for the life we have because of it. Those men went in as ordinary boys in extraordinary circumstances and came out as men.
In this episode you will hear:
- I have always been interested in WWII. These men are my heroes.
- I would go to India as a child and I would observe the contrast between life there and in Southern California.
- It’s because of bloodshed and sacrifice that the U.S. has become what it is.
- Seldom have I met veterans who come home from the war and do nothing. They travel, help people, and do things out of the ordinary because they feel like they’ve got a second chance and they’re not gonna waste it.
- Veterans have such a sense of humor.
- I meet real Americans, telling real stories.
- This is everything to me.
- Veterans do things for no other reason than that it’s the right thing to do. They have every reason to be angry at the world and they’re not.
- One of the first Iwo Jima veterans I interviewed turned 19 on the ship to Iwo Jima, and everyone in his platoon called him “old man.” That’s how young our WWII soldiers were.
- During the Warsaw Uprising girls and boys were on the same level. A woman I interviewed saw as much combat as some hardened combat veterans at the age of 15.
- One D-Day Veteran said he could clearly remember the color of his underwear that day. He said they were brown.
- I told my parents I’d be gone for a couple of months, and I haven’t been back in 5 years.
- I’m really scared for a world without World War II veterans because that would leave us without a moral compass.
- I have conducted over 1,700 interviews, gleaning that kind of wisdom.